Yep, I said it. I, a Manchester United fan, hearts Arsene Wenger. Who knew he had a sense of humour?

The Arsenal manager was sent off by referee Mike Dean after he kicked a water bottle in protest over Robin van Persie’s disallowed goal in injury-time in the 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford. Wenger then proceeded to go behind the dug-out and stood with the fans with his hands stretched out looking at the referee, before being escorted to the tunnel by a steward. Brilliant.

Ahh, they need to put that on a t-shirt.

Oh ya, one more thing. Arsenal should have gotten a penalty for that tackle on Andrey Arshavin by Darren Fletcher. Sure, he got the ball but not before he got the player. What?"-yj

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Last January, me, Cody, and Cooper all rode from Huntington to LA in back one weekend. It was around 140 miles round trip and When you're on the road for 7 hours at a time you see some pretty interesting stuff. This particular picture was taken right after the road that goes under LAX; Cooper got a flat tire and we spent 30 min fixing it. After 20 min we got stopped by a cop who said we looked suspicious, and after explaining the situation, we were on our way.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Tanner Prairies custom surfboard shop, The Black Hole, has unofficially opened on 1808 Newport Blvd in Costa Mesa. The shop is pretty cool. Kind of dirty, but for the most part, surferesque. He is taking RVCA shirts and customizing them to fit his style. He is settled in between City Grounds (a fixie shop) and a barber shop (gnarly punk guys). He is currently shaping my friend Trevor a board for a pretty good price. Tanner's experimenting with step decks, where he cuts a portion off the top of the front and the back of the board to make the board flex in the wave when youre nose riding or turning, a pretty sick concept. The shop opens up on Aug. 28th at 7:00 pm, stop by and check out whats going on in The Black Hole.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The man, the myth, the legend: Iggy Pop burst on the scene in the late 60's and has been going balls out since. "The Godfather of Punk" has been entertaining audiences of thousands of people since he led one of the most influential bands in punk, The Stooges in the late 60's and early 70's. At the ripe age of 62, Iggy Pop still stage dives and takes his clothes off like he is still 20 years old.

My bud Connor Corrigan took part in this new thing that Generic Youth in Costa Mesa did this summer called Impossible Education. It was a deal where Jeff, the owner of Generic Youth teaches guys how to make clothes, set up a company, and build connections. Connor just finished up Impossible Education just in time before heading back to school in Boston this year. His company is called OZ OK and its sold it at Generic Youth and hopefully more stores soon. He's made some pretty sick stuff; tshirts, sweatshirts, and legit stickers. Can't wait to see what Connor has in store next...

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Monday, August 10, 2009

I met this kid Shane the other week out surfing Doheny. He is quite possibly the nicest, gentlest, most down to earth surfer I have ever met. He exemplifies all that surfing was, is, and should be. He has a carefree attitude, listens to other people before talking himself, and not to mention can noseride better than most people i know. All in all, i can only hope to be the surfer that Shane is.

lately, ive been a bit of a bum. i havent been inspired too much to go out and surf; but the other day, my friend ashley said "get off your fat ass and come play with me". so i did. and i never looked back.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Looks Like Its Time To Surf ElsewhereWe’ve all been there before, sitting in class daydreaming about taking off on the most glassy peeler of your life, or in a dingy cubicle counting down the days until you can finally hit the beach. The months before summer seem to tease us with the foreshadowing of sunny weather and beautiful beaches and though it may seem like a perfect time to surf, many locals find their regular breaks and line ups crammed full of tourists, foamies, and inner tubes.

In an effort to regulate such crowds and avoid angry moms with wagons chasing their children, sunscreen in hand, here are five sure fire ways to avoid the summer crowds and still get your surfing fix:

1. Dawn PatrolBy now I’m sure you’ve all heard the prehistoric phrase, “The early bird catches the worm.” Well in this case, it catches the wave. I know you love to sleep in; you’re a surfer, surf all day and rage all night right? Wrong. If you really want to beat those crowds to the beach you’re going want to avoid the hangover, or at least put on a pot of coffee for this one, so put down that beer. I know you don’t like waking up early, well it turns out, people on vacation don’t either. Remember Packing up the minivan, the cooler, and inflating the inner tube doesn’t happen until at least 10 am, so you’re safe until then. Be sure to check the tides at the beach you’re going to beforehand, sometimes the morning tides are too low or too high. It’s always better to be prepared.

2. Sunset SessionIn stark contrast to dawn patrol there is the sunset session or sunset sesh, as I like to call it. This is even better for those of you who really don’t like waking up early and can be just as serene and relaxing as dawn patrol. Even though it may be hard to believe in today’s day and age, everyone has to eat, you’d think we’d have some kind of technology for this by now, but just around five or six O’clock the crowds start to clear out and look for some trendy late night beach café’s to eat at, or just empty the cooler and head back to the hotel. This means it is prime time for sunset session; not only are the beaches and line ups virtually empty but you can watch the summer sun set and bounce off the backs of those glassy waves.

3. The Crew Have you ever been somewhere with a large group of your friends and attracted attention? It’s a known fact that things that come in groups, teams or packs, in and out of nature are just downright intimidating. Wolves, Football players, hockey teams, buffalo, and the cast of 300. There’s all kinds of packs in that movie. Mostly 6, sometimes 8, and the occasional 12, all very intimidating. The bottom line here is, when you paddle out with a group of friends into a crowded line up its much easier to catch waves especially if you are goofy and your friends are regular, then you’ve got the right and left side of that wave covered. You can share waves with each other and put simply, people are just more inclined to let you take more waves because the majority of the crowd out there will probably someone you came with.

4. Secret Spot Another way to do crowd control is to avoid the crowd all together. Find a secret spot to surf. This may entail actually voyaging out to the ends of the earth to find said secret spot and though it may seem extremely difficult it is only because it is virtually impossible. Don’t give up just yet, there are some sick places that though they have been discovered are not completely swamped in beach umbrellas and family barbecues. Areas like Bali, areas of Fiji, and Santa Catarina in Brazil are great places to take a surf trip to and do some exploring.

5. Skate Ok, I know nothing can really take the place of gliding down the face of wave or trimming a beautiful right? But when it’s over crowded or there are no waves, skating has always been a slightly more acceptable method for getting that surf fix than most. Whether you are into polyurethane wheels and Lords of Dogtown, or going 50/50 down a rail to ollie down a set of stairs, skating can help you with your balance and over all surfing performance, so don’t be afraid to pick up that board and skate away from the crowd instead of paddling into it. If all else fails in preventing these massive crowd shenanigans, you can always buy an air horn to clear people out of your way, because yelling shark in the water is like yelling fire in a movie theater, and an air horn only cost around $7.95, this is a very acceptable alternative.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

A couple shots from Laguna on the Friday of that big swell. One of my sister, Natasha. One of a couple guards bodysurfing. And the one of Main beach looking alot like Hawaii. A really gnarly day. The official numbers from the day in Laguna were: 321 rescues, 4836 preventative actions, and a crowd of 25,000+ in all of Laguna. With the water holding at 75 degrees, and the inland weather being so hot, we were especially busy.